Principles of Information Security, 2nd Edition 1

Law & Ethics, Policies & Guidelines, and Security Awareness

Principles of Information Security, 2nd Edition 2

Use this chapter as a guide for future reference on laws, regulations, and professional organizations

Differentiate between laws and ethics

Identify major national laws that relate to the practice of information security

Understand the role of culture as it applies to ethics in information security

Describe management’s role in the development, maintenance, and enforcement of information security policy, standards, practices, procedures, and guidelines

Learning ObjectivesUpon completion of this material, you should be able to:

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Introduction

You must understand scope of an organization’s legal and ethical responsibilities

To minimize liabilities/reduce risks, the information security practitioner must:

Understand current legal environment

Stay current with laws and regulations

Watch for new issues that emerge

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Law and Ethics in Information Security

Laws: rules that mandate or prohibit certain societal behavior

Ethics: define socially acceptable behavior

Cultural mores: fixed moral attitudes or customs of a particular group; ethics based on these

Laws carry sanctions of a governing authority; ethics do not

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Types of Law

Civil

Criminal

Tort

Private

Public

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Relevant U.S. Laws (General)

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFA Act)

National Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996

USA Patriot Act of 2001

Telecommunications Deregulation and Competition Act of 1996

Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA)

Computer Security Act of 1987

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U.S. Copyright Law

Intellectual property recognized as protected asset in the U.S.; copyright law extends to electronic formats

With proper acknowledgement, permissible to include portions of others’ work as reference

U.S. Copyright Office Web site: www.copyright.gov

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State and Local Regulations

Restrictions on organizational computer technology use exist at international, national, state, local levels

Information security professional responsible for understanding state regulations and ensuring organization is compliant with regulations

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International Laws and Legal Bodies

European Council Cyber-Crime Convention:

Establishes international task force overseeing Internet security functions for standardized international technology laws

Attempts to improve effectiveness of international investigations into breaches of technology law

Well received by intellectual property rights advocates due to emphasis on copyright infringement prosecution

Lacks realistic provisions for enforcement

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United Nations Charter

Makes provisions, to a degree, for information security during information warfare (IW)

IW involves use of information technology to conduct organized and lawful military operations

IW is relatively new type of warfare, although military has been conducting electronic warfare operations for decades

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Policy Versus Law

Most organizations develop and formalize a body of expectations called policy

Policies serve as organizational laws

To be enforceable, policy must be distributed, readily available, easily understood, and acknowledged by employees

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Ethics and Information Security

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Ethical Differences Across Cultures

Cultural differences create difficulty in determining what is and is not ethical

Difficulties arise when one nationality’s ethical behavior conflicts with ethics of another national group

Example: many of ways in which Asian cultures use computer technology is software piracy

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Ethics and Education

Overriding factor in leveling ethical perceptions within a small population is education

Employees must be trained in expected behaviors of an ethical employee, especially in areas of information security

Proper ethical training vital to creating informed, well prepared, and low-risk system user

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Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)

ACM established in 1947 as “the world's first educational and scientific computing society”

Code of ethics contains references to protecting information confidentiality, causing no harm, protecting others’ privacy, and respecting others’ intellectual property

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Computer Security Institute (CSI)

Provides information and training to support computer, networking, and information security professionals

Though without a code of ethics, has argued for adoption of ethical behavior among information security professionals

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Key U.S. Federal Agencies

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC)

National Security Agency (NSA)

U.S. Secret Service

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Information Security Policy, Standards and Practices

Communities of interest must consider policies as basis for all information security efforts

Policies direct how issues should be addressed and technologies used

Security policies are least expensive controls to execute but most difficult to implement

Shaping policy is difficult

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Definitions

Policy: course of action used by organization to convey instructions from management to those who perform duties

Policies are organizational laws Standards: more detailed statements of what must be

done to comply with policy Practices, procedures and guidelines effectively explain

how to comply with policy For a policy to be effective, must be properly

disseminated, read, understood and agreed to by all members of organization

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Policy Management

Policies must be managed as they constantly change

To remain viable, security policies must have:

Individual responsible for reviews

A schedule of reviews

Method for making recommendations for reviews

Specific policy issuance and revision date

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Information Classification

Classification of information is an important aspect of policy

Policies are classified

A clean desk policy stipulates that at end of business day, classified information must be properly stored and secured

In today’s open office environments, may be beneficial to implement a clean desk policy

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Security Education, Training, and Awareness Program

As soon as general security policy exist, policies to implement security education, training and awareness (SETA) program should follow

SETA is a control measure designed to reduce accidental security breaches

Security education and training builds on the general knowledge the employees must possess to do their jobs, familiarizing them with the way to do their jobs securely

The SETA program consists of three elements: security education; security training; and security awareness

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Security Education

Everyone in an organization needs to be trained and aware of information security; not every member needs formal degree or certificate in information security

When formal education for individuals in security is needed, an employee can identify curriculum available from local institutions of higher learning or continuing education

A number of universities have formal coursework in information security

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Security Training

Involves providing members of organization with detailed information and hands-on instruction designed to prepare them to perform their duties securely

Management of information security can develop customized in-house training or outsource the training program

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Figure 5-15 – Spheres of Security

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Design of Security Architecture

Defense in depth Implementation of security in layers

Requires that organization establish sufficient security controls and safeguards so that an intruder faces multiple layers of controls

Security perimeter Point at which an organization’s security protection ends

and outside world begins

Does not apply to internal attacks from employee threats or on-site physical threats

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Key Technology Components

Firewall: device that selectively discriminates against information flowing into or out of organization

Demilitarized zone (DMZ): no-man’s land between inside and outside networks where some organizations place Web servers

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs): in effort to detect unauthorized activity within inner network, or on individual machines, organization may wish to implement an IDS

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Figure 5-18 – Key Components

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Summary

Laws: rules that mandate or prohibit certain behavior in society; drawn from ethics

Ethics: define socially acceptable behaviors; based on cultural mores (fixed moral attitudes or customs of a particular group)

Types of law: civil, criminal, tort law, private, public

Management has essential role in development, maintenance, and enforcement of information security policy, standards, practices, procedures, and guidelines